the waiter, said, "her ladyship, sir, desires to have her woman sent to her."

"My lady's maid, sir Frederick?" said the waiter. "Maid, sir, if you choose!" repeated sir Frederick, sneeringly. "I thank you, sir, for setting me right.You'll please to do as you are ordered, sir, and make no comments; and, sirrah,” said he, calling the man back, who was actually gone,-" be quick about it, sir."

"Yes, sir Frederick," said the waiter, and again disappeared.

"You should always be prepared, Ma'am," said his excellency to Fanny, "before the moment we are starting; however," added he, chucking her under the chin, with an air of fondness, we shall know each other bet ter before we die, Ma'am :-come-here is your woman-go and get yourself ready."

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Poor Fanny, hardly knowing whether she lived or not, and half worried to death, repaired to her room, attended by her maid, and shortly returned, fully equipped for the journey.

66 Twelve minutes and a half, Ma'am, are more than I can allow for beautifying yourself,;' said his excellency, as she entered the room; "however, when we get to London, you will be forced into activity; we shall have no time to spare there-come-is the woman ready?" "Yes, sir Frederick," said Fanny, "we are quite ready now."

"We! Ma'am," cried his excellency, "who are we, Ma'am? your maid and yourself, Ma'am-upon my word, an agreeable association! I desire you will learn better to appreciate the distance at which circumstances have placed you from the poor ignorant creature that curls your hair and pins on your neckerchief;-we, Ma'am!-recollect the station, which you will be called upon shortly to fill;-we, indeed!-poor girl!-but, come, you mean no harm, I dare say!--Why, lady Brashleigh, Ma'am, you have been painting yourself!"

Fanny stared with astonishment at the accusation. "I, sir Frederick ?" said she.

"Surely you have," said he; come hither, Ma'am,

come to the light,--umph, no, it isn't paint," added his excellency, rubbing her cheek at the same moment with his hand," you are flushed, Ma'am--has any thing alarmed you

"No, sir Frederick,--I--I-"

"Are you sure, Ma'am?" said he, “quite sure?" "What should alarm me?" asked his lady.

"I don't know what should alarm you, Ma'am," replied he slowly, and half sneeringly; "but I do not at all approve of your wandering about public inns by yourself, Ma'am,-where's your woman?"

"Here am I, sir Frederick," said the maid.

"Umph!" said his excellency, "very well, that's enough, I dare say I am wrong, only see that this is amended another time; come, Ma'am, let us be off," saying which, with an air of gallantry, he offered his arm to his trembling bride, and descended the staircase.

When he reached the hall, he had the particularly good taste to enquire whether the gentleman he had seen standing at the door wearing a white hat, was gone on towards London.

"No, sir," said the landlord, "the gentleman you mean is staying here."

sir ;

"Umph," said his excellency, "thank you, come, Lady Brashleigh, step into the carriage, Ma'am ; -I--I--wish you good morning, sir :-staying hereumph!" Saying which, the amiable bridegroom followed his lovely Fanny into the barouche, and the door being closed, "all right" was given as the signal for starting, and away they rolled towards the great metropolis.

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I have no doubt that this sketch will appear to many my readers too coarse, and almost unlike nature, especially to those who are young, ardent, and full of love for some bewitching object with whom they picture the uninterrupted enjoyment of happiness, whenever stern guardians shall relent, or obdurate parents melt, or rigid aunts unbend, and Hymen blesses their propitious loves; but it is really no caricature; dominion, rule, and authority were the idols of Sir Frederick's heart, and now

that he had married the girl, (why he hardly knew, and since their union less than ever,) and she was necessarily subject to his commands and whims, the chief pleasure derivable to him from the match was to show his power and control, and rehearse, as it were, in his domestic circle, the dictatorial conduct, which he intended to display upon more important occasions and on a larger theatre in the east.

It will be recollected, that I warned my reader what to expect from him; if, as a young man making his way in the world, married for love, and domesticated with a charming creature of a suitable age, he was remarked for being morose, petulant, and coarse; careless of his Amelia's charms at one moment, and furiously jealous of her at another, raving about his rights and privileges, while they were safe and unattacked, and bartering his most important and delicate interests, when he could do so, for personal advancement; what was to be expected from him in after life, when he had become in turn the great man and commander, and when from a sudden whim, or rather as I believe a pique (taken at an unqualified refusal which his offers had just previously received in London,) he had united himself to a creature young enough to be his grand daughter, of whom, judging by past circumstances, it was clear he would be continually suspicious; from whose conversation he could receive no gratification, since she had never been in India, (of which alone he loved to talk,) and whose inexperience, while it was a perpetual source of uneasiness and irritation to him, rendered her wholly unfit for the dignified station she was destined to fill; his excellency having at the same time the most sovereign contempt for her parents, whose names he never mentioned without accompanying the words with gestures indicative of dislike, and even disgust?

In addition to these evident drawbacks to his perfect felicity, he felt, now that he had completed the engagement which he had rashly and intemperately entered into, the most sensitive alarm at her ladyship's approaching visit to London, and a positive disinclination to in

troduce her to his friends and connexions, who he knew were all quite ready to find fault and condemn his taste and judgment, even were his bride perfection; but who now, having some tenable ground for satire and observation, would doubtlessly open the most furious batteries of ridicule and reproach upon him for having united himself to a girl whose mind was uncultivated, and whose manners were unformed; for although Fanny was young and beautiful, and kind and tender, and versed in all moderate and becoming accomplishments for a rural nymph, she knew not how to exhibit herself after the fashion of opera girls in French dances, nor whirl the giddy round "in man's embrace." Of Italian, that soul-subduing language, she knew nothing; of chemistry she was hopelessly ignorant; she had never drawn from the antique, nor attended lectures on natural philosophy, --and what would Mrs. Brashleigh, his excellency's daughter-in-law, who was deep blue, think of such an ignorant creature as this? and how would Miss Diana Chicherly, or Miss Ellen D'Aubigny, his cousins, endure the society of a creature so ungraceful and so unenlightened?

The fear of ridicule, which keeps many men and women right, drove Sir Frederick from his original purpose of proceeding direct, and in the first instance, to his daughter-in-law's residence, and his thoughts were occupied during the progress from Hartford Bridge to Bagshot, in considering whither, when he reached Hounslow, he should direct the boys to drive.

Between Hartford Bridge and Bagshot, his excellency spoke but few words; in passing Blackwater, he desired her ladyship to draw down the blind on her side of the carriage as the sun glared in his eyes; the sun was not on that side of the road, but there were various groups of students belonging to the Military College, whose youthful figures and animated countenances, set off to advantage by the gay uniform of the establishment, appeared to his excellency likely to produce unpleasant reflections and comparisons in the mind of his youthful bride.

Poor Sir Frederick !-little did he think how far from him, and the straggling youngsters of the Military College, were seated the thoughts of poor Fanny. She seemed to herself, since her marriage, to have been in one continued dream, and that not of the most agreeable nature. Her eyes rested on passing or surrounding objects, but she saw them not; words rang in her ears, of which she scarcely knew the import. She leant back in the carriage, pale and abstracted, and, as she felt it was her duty to do, mechanically obeyed the directions of her husband, as she had heretofore obeyed those of her father; she felt for him, whose wife she was, all the respect due to his age, mingled with the awe which was excited by his conduct; he was shrewd enough to see the external symptoms of her mental disorder, but still attributed her dulness and abstraction to the separation from her family.

As the carriage rolled down the hill into Bagshot, his excellency, after gazing, unnoticed by her, for a few moments upor her pale cheek, took Fanny's hand, and enquired if her head ached? The question startled her, and the answer was a flood of tears.

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"Don't cry, ma'am," said his excellency, withdrawing his hand My first wife was a weeper, Ma'am ; and I did hope to have escaped a second. However, it seems you are come of a crying family. I hope I shall see less of this hereafter-I excuse it now-'tis natural perhaps as for myself, I never could cry at any thing, so I cannot say from experience."

"My head does ache violently," said Fanny; who of course could not explain the real source of her sorrow, and therefore was compelled to be disingenuous.

"I dare say, ma'am, you feel the effects of the wine and water you drank," said Sir Frederick; you are not used to that sort of wine, ma'am; Madeira is stronger than the currant wine of Somerville House; you must take care to remember that, when you get into good society, ma'am."

A reply to the insinuation conveyed in this speech, or an observation upon the ill-natured allusion to the home

VOL. II.

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